MTH Wifi DCS App Updated Today (Version 3.2.0)

yea I just update dated my app yesterday when I saw the new update, just have not had a chance to try it out yet!

thanks for the information. what a great forum! 

Thanks Greg

Nice to know.  I've been waiting for these upgrades.  Good follow thru MTH !

Now to go and try it !

Dave

Nice fixes but the "Labour Bias" for Legacy does not work.

It did work at one time....then was lost.

A previous thread on OGR was discussing this and MTH did indicate it was an issue and would address it.

I guess not on this round.

Dave

Great!!!  Will try it out later!

Soo Line posted:

Nice fixes but the "Labour Bias" for Legacy does not work.

It did work at one time....then was lost.

A previous thread on OGR was discussing this and MTH did indicate it was an issue and would address it.

I guess not on this round.

Dave

Ouch. I didn’t notice labor bias stopped working. Hopefully they will pick up that correction on the next round. 

As always, when a new update becomes available, I optimistically hope that the app’s variable voltage control issues will be addressed. They are significant issues. The power that comes out is messed up. First, the power quality gets worse and worse at lower voltages, because it appears that the frequency not the voltage is being reduced. Ten volts should be ten volts. It is not meant to be twenty volts at 30Hz. Therefore, at lower voltages, my E-units and pullmor motors take a beating with all the jarring and rattling. That’s probably why the app won’t let you go below 5 volts as the power would be garbage. Secondly, there remains a severe latency issue causing the voltage to become randomly stuck as the TIU locks up and falls behind on processing instructions from the app, no matter how slowly or carefully you make adjustments.  Lastly, horns and whistles get stuck blowing full volume non stop using variable voltage for both post war and modern era Lionel equipment. There must be some kind of DC offset in the signal too. The variable voltage control is unusable. Instead, I assign a Lionel Legacy Powermaster as an engine and use it for variable voltage control without any of these issues. I don’t blame these issues on the app. I really think these issues may be the result of hardware limitations for the TIU. I don’t think its variable voltage processing circuits have been updated, ever since it came out 18 years ago.

GregR posted:

Soo Line posted:

Nice fixes but the "Labour Bias" for Legacy does not work.

It did work at one time....then was lost.

A previous thread on OGR was discussing this and MTH did indicate it was an issue and would address it.

I guess not on this round.

Dave

Ouch. I didn’t notice labor bias stopped working. Hopefully they will pick up that correction on the next round. 

As always, when a new update becomes available, I optimistically hope that the app’s variable voltage control issues will be addressed. They are significant issues. The power that comes out is messed up. First, the power quality gets worse and worse at lower voltages, because it appears that the frequency not the voltage is being reduced. Ten volts should be ten volts. It is not meant to be twenty volts at 30Hz. Therefore, at lower voltages, my E-units and pullmor motors take a beating with all the jarring and rattling. That’s probably why the app won’t let you go below 5 volts as the power would be garbage. Secondly, there remains a severe latency issue causing the voltage to become randomly stuck as the TIU locks up and falls behind on processing instructions from the app, no matter how slowly or carefully you make adjustments.  Lastly, horns and whistles get stuck blowing full volume non stop using variable voltage for both post war and modern era Lionel equipment. There must be some kind of DC offset in the signal too. The variable voltage control is unusable. Instead, I assign a Lionel Legacy Powermaster as an engine and use it for variable voltage control without any of these issues. I don’t blame these issues on the app. I really think these issues may be the result of hardware limitations for the TIU. I don’t think its variable voltage processing circuits have been updated, ever since it came out 18 years ago.

I think you are dead on (correct). I stopped using the TIU for conventional control for this reason. I think it is a hardware issue as well, not a software issue. It is the same with the remote. I like your idea of powermasters. I use a ZW-C, which has built-in powermasters. I should see how that works. I can control it from the TMCC remote but haven't tried it as a TMCC engine. 

George

just updated my app and I am just using the engine screen. no switches or accessories with it. when I first connected my andriod tablet to the wiu and powered up the layout. as usuall the screen shows no active engines. so with track power on I did an engine refresh and OH BOY almost every engine came up in the active list.

I only had 3 mth engines on the layout. one engine in the inactive list was one the track. also tmcc and legacy engines witch were on my shelf and no where near the track were in the active list. plus the lashup mute sound issue is still there. I would like also at some point also when building a consists that individual engine sounds could choosen such as the horn. as it is now if you want all engines in the consist to blow there horns you have to address the middle and tail engines and turn up thier horn volumes. only the lead engines horn sounds when a lashup is made. having the ability to choose that all engines horns sound when blowing the horn would be a lot easier than it is now. I like all my engine horns blowing at the same time in a consist it just makes for a cool sound experience,plus it make for a real loud show for visitors. 

also I was told by andy edelman that the volume sliders would get plus and minus symbols to either side of thier respective Dot like sliders to make it easier to set sound volumes to exact levels. that feature was not present. at least for me and my Android app update. it seems they made it worse rather than better. really hope they get this app right at some point as I really love using it. it is what got me back into mth engines again. 

I have been running my trains with an ipad mini, first generation.  When I tried to update the app to the latest version, 3.2 from 3.1, it says the app will not run on this operating platform.  The last operating system for 1st generation ipad mini is 9.3.5.  Apparently I am stuck with 3.1 on this device.  Version 3.2 requires iOS 10.0 or later.

gregr,are you using apple or andriod for the app? to all wifi andriod users please post how the new app version is working for you. 

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

gregr,are you using apple or andriod for the app? to all wifi andriod users please post how the new app version is working for you. 

 As requested.... I'm using an older Galaxy tablet that is Android. No problems so far. I did notice that it initialized a lot faster than the old version. Now I run just plain ol vanilla DCS so I can't tell you about all the advanced features but the MTH engine and the conventional engine I ran were fine... 

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

gregr,are you using apple or andriod for the app? to all wifi andriod users please post how the new app version is working for you. 

I am using the apple version.  

You mentioned that TMCC/Legacy engines were on the active list even though they were on shelves. This is actually related to an improvement in the app. It no longer deletes TMCC/Legacy items from the active engine list every time you refresh. Now these engines are both added and deleted manually. For example, if you had six TMCC engines on the track, and you wanted to add an MTH DCS engine, you would have to do a refresh to add it to the list. The app used to automatically delete all the TMCC engines and make you manually add them back to the list every time you refresh. Now it leaves them there until you choose to remove them. However, having said that, your app shouldn’t have added Lionel engines on a refresh. Hopefully, that was one time only bug when you first powered up after the update.

I don’t know about DCS engines, but a Lionel lashup will sound all horns if you assign the same TMCC ID to all engines in the lashup. You just can’t use the electrocouplers because they would all fire at the same time.

Is this just an update to the app or also a hardware update for the wifi unit?

Also, while I appreciate MTH upgrading this app, why don't they offer available upgrades automatically when the app is opened? Why is it necessary tht Android users be required to go to Google play each time they open this app to see whether there's a new version iavailable for download?

greg my active list not only showed lionel engines, but dcs engines not on the layout. also running two dcs engines in a lashup last nite. when I addressed the lashup and ajusted the overall volume. the lead engine was fine,but the tail engine got quieter. I had to address the tail engine bring its overall volume up and then go back to the consist. every time I ajusted the volume of the consist this happened. also when running a consist the mute button only mutes the lead engine. it has been that way in the previous version of the app. when these lashup bugs in andriod get sorted out. the app will be ok I belive at least for me.

ogaugeguy posted:

Is this just an update to the app or also a hardware update for the wifi unit?

Also, while I appreciate MTH upgrading this app, why don't they offer available upgrades automatically when the app is opened? Why is it necessary tht Android users be required to go to Google play each time they open this app to see whether there's a new version iavailable for download?

My android system via the google play store notification automatically notifies me when an update is available for download and install.  You can set your operating system (Android or iOs) or sometimes w/i each app to update automatically w/o notification or just receive the update available notification and select if you wish to update or not.

I was concerned that w/ this update you are now granting the app permission to access your photos/media/files.  Is this related to the "Added support for DCS playable horn" feature? I didn't update my version to 3.2.0.  Maybe I'm overcautious due to so many applications that want permission to access components/files/locations/router/IP etc. that often seem way beyond the function of the app's marketed purpose, rather it also serves as an information profile collector that is marketed to others.  For now, I'll take the wait and see approach w/ this update.

I have an Apple Mini4 and cannot update to the new level.  Any Ideas?

Bruce, 

My iPad Mini 4 updated just fine.

Soo Line posted:

Nice fixes but the "Labour Bias" for Legacy does not work.

It did work at one time....then was lost.

A previous thread on OGR was discussing this and MTH did indicate it was an issue and would address it.

I guess not on this round.

Dave

Could you please help us understand how you are using labor bias?  What is it you are attempting to do and how does it work with the Cab2?  We sometimes find behavior the same between Cab2 and the app, such as no diesel rev with speed in some engines.  It would help to know your exact application so we can duplicate it here.  Thanks.

Is there any official listing of the changes the new app implements?